31 December 2005

Forty-seven years ago, on January 1st, 1959, in the town of Santiago de Cuba, comrade Fidel Castro addressed the people from the balcony of the city hall to declare a new era after a century of struggle for independence and dignity. January 1st is Cuba’s biggest national day of celebration.
The same comrade - still up to now President Fidel Castro - has this week welcomed another comrade, Evo Morales, newly elected President of Bolivia, to Cuba (see the linked document).
In the article, Prensa Latina announces that Evo Morales will be visiting South Africa!
Link (1):

30 December 2005

Dear Comrades,
The Communist University wishes you a revolutionary New Year!
This is the CU Year of the Women. Hence the newly arrived piece herewith - the concluding chapter of Angela Davis’ book on Women, Race and Class. The way forward is still the same as she wrote it, a quarter of a century ago.
Yours in struggle.
Links (1):
1981, Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class, Chapter 13 (11 pages)

27 December 2005

Dear Comrades,
The one item today consists of two articles from the New York Times, forwarded to me by a Cuban comrade. The articles are about the baseball tournament that is scheduled to take place in the USA from March 3rd to 20th (i.e. coinciding with the 3rd anniversary of the occupation of Iraq and the world-wide peace activities on that occasion).
The US treasury says that the Cubans can’t be paid. The Cubans say: fine, we are amateurs; give the money to the Katrina victims. The Cubans are the world champions in baseball. Read on …
Yours in struggle,
Dominic
Links (1):
Cuba Offers to Play Baseball for Katrina Victims, NYT (2 articles, 4 pages)

26 December 2005

Dear Comrades,
Maybe it’s a good moment to line up one New Year’s resolution: Make 2006 a year for peace and make March 18th and 19th something to remember forever.
The US warmongers are going to try to pull their troops out if they can and rely upon bombing to maintain their coercion over Iraq. The intention is for them to keep their activities out of the public eye.
This is what we must work to frustrate. It is not an impossible task. Even such a newspaper as the Washington Post may sometimes assist. See today’s only item, which arrived on Christmas Day.
Yours in struggle,
DominicU.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians, WaPo (4 pages)

24 December 2005

2005-12-24
Dear Comrades,
Here are the most useful chapters of Lenin’s “Left Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder” (as part of our occasional “Revolutionary Classics” series). This book was written as advice to the proletarian parties in bourgeois-democratic countries.
Otherwise there is very little news this Christmas Eve, which is as it should be. So let the last word go to a letter-writer with an unusual letter from yesterday’s Business Day
Yours wishing you a Happy Christmas!
With goodwill to everyone,
Dominic
Links (1):
1. Lenin, 'Left-Wing Communism', Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6 & 7 (16 pages)2. Tension in ANC, Phaahla letter, Business Day (1 page)

23 December 2005

2005 - 12 - 23
Dear Comrades,
George Bush II the Small-Minded has banned the Cuban Baseball team from the first international tournament of that game (not the previous âWorld Seriesâ which was arrogantly confined to the USA and Canada). Dave Zirin the revolutionary sports journalist goes up with a good denunciation in Counterpunch.
Wiseman Khuzwayo has the job of fancying up the talk of âBEE coming of ageâ. If this means it is no longer considered innocent (but rather guilty) then these boosters may be saying something of the truth. At least Cde. Wiseman reports what SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande had to say on the subject: âan aggressive sponsorship of certain sections of the black middle class by various key financial conglomerates of domestic capitalâ.
Again from Counterpunch, here is a good description of what the plea-bargaining system that is creeping into South African law is really all about, as seen fully-developed in its homeland, the USA.
A letter in the Business Day shows how state-monopoly capitalism works at the micro level.
The class struggle never stops. Woolworths workers are on strike and COSATU is with them.
Yours in struggle,

22 December 2005

2005-12-22
Dear Comrades,
Extraordinary measures are being taken to prop up the so-called BEE in South Africa. It seems that the empowered are wanting to take their free money and walk away, leaving companies back where they started with no qualifying black capitalists. Government will now buy them out but continue to certify the companies as BEE. And there is more weirdness. Read the Business Day and Business Report articles.
This kind of thing is apt to get released at Christmas time in the hope that nobody notices, or nobody reacts, or people forget.
The Business Day’s article on the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial (called the “Doha round”) is gloomy. COSATU’s summary of this event remains the best so far.
Just to remind us how far we have to go, Counterpunch has re-published a scorching interview with Jean Ziegler, UN rapporteur on food resources.
The Communist University
Please look at the attached diagram. This is how the CU is designed to work from now on. It is also a system which other organisations can use. Wikispace, Blogger, and Google Groups are all free services (so long as you can get connected). SACP, YCL and ANC areas and branches and trade union locals and branches can all use this set-up to communicate with their office-bearers and members.
Please allow me to realise this system in full for the Communist University by subscribing (free) to our Google Group either by responding to the e-mail invitation you have received, or directly on the Google Group site. Please help me to escape from the chore of copying and pasting to e-mail forms every morning.
Questions are welcome.
Yours in struggle,
DominicLinks (5):
1. Warehousing, government buys BEE stakes, B Day (2 pages)2. Second raft of BEE codes, thumbs up, B Rep (1 page)3. Doha round is looking doomed, Njobeni, Business Day (2 pages)4. Empire of Shame, Ziegler, Counterpunch (3 pages)5. Communist University Diagram (1 page)

21 December 2005

2005-12-21
Dear Comrades,
The story of Evo Moralesâ election victory in Bolivia is not a hard one to understand. It is simple and beautiful.
It is a reminder that the tide of liberation is still flowing.
Che Guevara died in Bolivia in 1967.
Well burrowed, old mole!
Google group as distribution system for the Communist University
Google have accepted the first hundred or so names into the group but have switched the remaining 300 over to âInvitationsâ. The good side of this decision is that nobody will be able to complain that they did not get the option to refuse (but the option was already there anyway). The less good side is that I will not easily be able to know who is on which list or to finalise the process for a long time to come â unless you all respond quickly and positively. Please do so as soon as you can.
In other words, by trying to save you trouble, Google have put you to the trouble of subscribing to the new list. I must now maintain the old lists and eliminate the names one by one as they appear on the new (Google group) list. It will be a lot more work for me. You can help me by responding positively and quickly. Please do. Please also be patient if you are receiving two versions â inform me and I will eliminate the old one.
Just to remind you, the new system works like this:
I put the items for the day on the CU wikispace web site.
I then compose a message (like the one you are reading now), with links to the articles, and put it on the CU blog. The blog automatically sends one e-mail to the Google group. The group then automatically sends the message on to its list of addresses. People can join and leave the groupâs list at will at any time. Members of the group cannot send messages to the group. It is not that kind of group. It is only a relay. This system is the one suggested by Google (Blogger) in their âHelpâ.
I have enough experience of it now to be sure that Google is correct with their advice and that the system works very well. I would recommend it to anyone. Please help make it happen by responding quickly so that the change-over can be completed soon.
If you are already receiving messages without attachments, you donât have to respond. If you have any questions at all, please e-mail me.

20 December 2005

Current News". Register a username and password at Wikispaces (for free) to use the discussion facility there, or go to http://domza.net/ to comment on this message.
2005-12-20
Dear Comrades,
Evo Morales has been elected President of Bolivia. A great victory! More about it tomorrow.
Herewith is the statement of COSATU on the outcomes of the Hong Kong WTO jamboree, called a Ministerial. The situation is clearer thanks to this statement. The Imperialists did not get all that they wanted but did create a dangerous “back door” for themselves which will have to be watched.
Especially significant are COSATU’s remarks about the way forward.
The statements of NEDLAC and the FSCC are included for the record and in continuance of the CU tradition of publishing original documents whenever possible. The recognition of the Ugandan Union is a small sample of the huge amount of organising work that has to go on all the time so that the Trade Union movement reproduces itself.
Antiwar.com is a libertarian web site opposed to war and the Iraq war in particular. These libertarians are trying to build an international peace front. Let’s hope they succeed. They obviously have a fair bit to learn. When Robert Mugabe turned up at their peace conference they felt compelled to protest. Dr Mahathir was wiser than they were. See the fifth document.

19 December 2005

http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ is the Communist University on the Internet. This circulation is archived there as " Current News". Register a username and password at Wikispaces (for free) to use the discussion facility there, or go to http://domza.net/ to comment on this message.
Dear Comrades,
There’s nothing in the papers! Or very little.
Ariel Sharon is in hospital after having a stroke.
The Mail and Guardian displayed the racist fake “conspiracy” e-mails, to their eternal shame. The same paper apologised in the same edition to Dr Blade Nzimande, General Secretary of the SACP, for a previous falsehood that they had published. Apologies are cheap. Learning from mistakes is harder, it seems.
The WTO Hong Kong summit is over. It appears that some kind of “modus vivendi” (way of carrying on) was worked out and that the WTO itself survives. First reports, news conferences and press releases about the summit results are not likely to be reliable. It is better to withhold judgement until the documents have appeared and been read by the participants, and we have their reaction.
So we are back to another virtual session of the ever-growing course of Revolutionary Classics. The next one will be Lenin’s “Left Wing Communism” and it will be followed by Marx’s three great books on revolutionary class politics in France.
The Communist University is taking a shape that is designed for the long term, although it is not yet complete. It is intended to work in the following way: I blog this message at http://domza.net/ . The blog automatically e-mails it to the list of subscribers, via the Google group http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ . There will be links to documents in the e-mails, but no attachments.
Everything will be archived at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ , including the blog (which is the same as this e-mail).
Not all of this is working yet. I am attempting to get all your names on to the group, but have not yet succeeded.
If you need to keep getting the documents as attachments, please let me know. I will create a special list for people who need the attachments. They may be in .txt (plain text) format in future. But the “default” will be links-only. I will keep repeating this message.
Apart from this daily system there is the Communist University Library at http://cu.domza.net/ . This is the material from the CU CD (which is still available). It amounts to a basic proletarian library in a convenient form that is accessible to millions of workers. Have a look!
Yours in struggle,
Dominic
Links/ Attachments (1):
1917, Lenin, State & Revolution C2 & 3 (16 pages)
The Communist University is:
A live session scheduled at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/Communist+University+2006
Education, organisation and mobilisation at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/
A daily e-mail update. Subscribe at http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/
An on-line library of classics and courses at
A blog at http://domza.net/
A person you can e-mail: dominic.tweedie@gmail.comThis entry linked to Wikispaces page (Blog)

18 December 2005

http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ is the Communist University on the Internet. This circulation is archived there as " Current News". Register a username and password at Wikispaces (for free) to use the discussion facility there, or go to http://domza.net/ to comment on this message.
Dear Comrades,
The linked/attached document containing the joint COSATU/CUT statement was sent by Cde Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of COSATU. This is as good as, or better than, any other report from the Hong Kong WTO talks. Here one can practically see Imperialism’s face up close (as well as sample its gobbledegook language – also see the other two documents).
As Elmer Gantry said of The Devil: “I seen ‘im plenny o’ times!”
Hong Kong is a major battleground. But otherwise it looks as if this year of struggle is about to go into retirement for a couple of weeks before handing over to its successor. At last.
One thing I have noticed this year. The retailers and the malls have finally realised that there are more people turned off by “carols” than otherwise. So suddenly, no more carols! Hooray! They will not be missed.
The Communist University never sleeps. The CU blog is back in business at http://domza.net/ and it feeds into the web site here . This is thanks to a new piece of wikispace technical wizardry. The net result is that these short introductions of mine will be available in both places from now on. You can comment on them in the blog or in the wikispace. That will be nice. You are still welcome to send me e-mails, but blog comments and wikispace discussions are visible to all, which is in principle better and more in keeping with Freirean principles .
I need to warn you that there will be some more changes. I am going to try to phase out the e-mail attachments (but not the e-mails). So please try to get used to using links instead of attachments. If you would like to express any view about this, please do so. But basically I have to rationalise the technology of this thing so that I can continue to manage it. So, in come links and out go attachments – soon. If this is going to cause you problems please let me know, and I will make a plan for you if I can.
Check out http://cu.domza.net if you wish. It will soon have the full Communist University archive of books and courses, which has previously only been available on CD.
Yours in struggle,
Dominic
Links/ Attachments (1):
1. COSATU and CUT, Brazil, at WTO Hong Kong, statement (2 pages)2. Deciphering the Language of Globalization, Counterpunch (2 pages)3. Calling Rousseau, Privatizing the Social Contract, Cpunch (3pages)This entry linked to Wikispaces page (Blog)

17 December 2005

Dear Comrades, Sorry for another test.
It should be the last, with any luck.
But try this URL (the shape of things to come): http://cu.domza.net
Yours in struggle,
Al Domza
This entry linked to Wikispaces page (Blog)

16 December 2005

What I am trying to do here is to use the wikispaces Blog integration facility from the Blogger side so as to paste the blog simultaneously in a page on the Communist University wikispace that I have called Blog. The idea is to make this a daily routine procedure do that the covering messages of my daily circulation are here as a blog and there as an archive.
The nest step is to organise the e-mailing of the same message to the list of 400 or so addresses that currently are getting it, and then I will have a single integrated mechanism. All I will have to do is to paste the four to six items in the Wiki each day, make the links in the blog and write the covering note, press one button, and the work is done.
That's the general idea, anyway.
This entry linked to Wikispaces page (C U Blog)